Clone Sideshow Bodies Switch to Hot Toys

[spiderrogue]

soo,....if the "problem" is really the feet...why not just figure out a way to fix the ankles? my thoughts are....
with all of the armor on the body, they cant be super posed anyways..there are limits....so putting them on a better, more articulated body, just seems wasteful..you know? plus the actual clone bodies are pretty articulated anyways...lol..
and since you are basically posing them for your shoots, etc...i DO understand about the ankles, etc..but when on the shelf....dont you use a stand? people have used super glue to tighten up the joints before and it seems to work...or you can wrap tape around the other joints(knees, elbows) and it will help as well...
anywho..just my thoughts...ive been in this boat before and have found out that it's just way too much trouble to put the armor on other bodies that they arent supposed to be on...lol...

so just buy you some new ball joints for the feet and swap them around on the clone bodies...problem solved...

 

[Cc3680]

Does anyone know if the next size up in TTM Hot Toys has the same diameter thighs?
Does anyone know an easy way to change the limbs on a Hot Toys figure?
Any suggestions to make the torso armor fit better?

Thanks everyone, and I hope some of this helps someone. I do not have any Jedi or a Fett yet but I imagine this would be simpler for them due to the lack of torso issue.

 

[zebraten]

If the rear end of the HT body is hard plastic (I think it is) you can dremel or "shave" his butt just enough so that the armor can fit. It's about a five minute job. There is a lot of excess plastic back there and if you keep him armored, you will never see his scars.

Sideshow Clone Armor On A Hot Toys TTM 22 Body

Legs: GREAT! The fit is tight. There is no slipping of the armor, no spinning/ rotating of leg pieces. Joints are still able to move appropriately without restriction. It is like the armor was made for these legs.

Arms: VERY GOOD. Forearm fits well so does the elbow. Upper arm (biceps) were a bit loose. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed by either padding that area on your figure or padding the inside of the upper arm armor.

Chest: Good. The Hot Toys chest is not as big and broad as the sideshow clone. There for this figure does not fill out the shoulder bells as well. Still not bad and could be addressed with the addition of padding if desired. I actually thought there was a certain Realness to the way it fit so it didn’t bother me too much.

Torso: AaaaaaGHHHH. Here is the next big problem. The Hot Toys lower abdomen is bigger then the Sideshow’s. The Hot Toys butt is a bit bigger as well. I could not fit the clone torso on to any satisfaction. I gave it the hot water bath to try and mold it a little. I could get it and then put the belt on but there is still a gap in the armor on either side. Also the chest armor would not fit over the torso and kept popping up.

Gree is the Hot Toys body. I would like to keep this Hot Toys body because the ability to pose is fantastic. BUT I am not sure where to go from here.

I left the room with the figure standing without a stand. I never did that with a sideshow body!!

Not sure how to proceed from here. Any suggestions?????????

 

[spiderrogue]

i have a fett body..let me see if the armor will go on him or not..

waist armor...nope...gap on both sides..
head..nope...hole in bottom of bucket it too big for BF neck post..sigh
chest armor..yep..fits...but without waist armor..what's the point? lol
upper leg..nope...
lower arm...yep
hands/feet..with some work...
upper arm..yep..but a little tight and even more so if suit is under it...

 

[Cc3680]

That is a reasonable suggestion SR. very reasonable. I wanted the body anyways for another bash (you know which one) so I thought why not try this too.

What is the superglue method for sideshow ankles? How do you do it?

Has anyone tried to stick a ball joint in the sideshow lower leg?

 

[Cc3680]

If the rear end of the HT body is hard plastic (I think it is) you can dremel or "shave" his butt just enough so that the armor can fit. It's about a five minute job. There is a lot of excess plastic back there and if you keep him armored, you will never see his scars.

Good suggestion Zebraten. I am scared to do that. I might though - just scared. Guess I was hoping to hear ideas before I did anything too permanent.

 

[spiderrogue]

you know..if you have a dremel..anything is possible..trust me..
if the peg doesnt fit in the other body...drilled that sucker out..that's what i would do...or if it's too big of a hole..wrap some tape around the peg....

 

[lerath666]

hmm... considering swapping my fett over...

 

[spiderrogue]

That is a reasonable suggestion SR. very reasonable. I wanted the body anyways for another bash (you know which one) so I thought why not try this too.

What is the superglue method for sideshow ankles? How do you do it?

Has anyone tried to stick a ball joint in the sideshow lower leg?

lol..well..ive never really done it, on purpose...
you know when you accidently glue something(like an elbow or knee) and you are like..oh crap..and you frantically start bending the joint to get it to move again...?? yea..like that...but on purpose..

oh and if you dremel the butt down too much..you'll end up with extra holes that you dont want..so do it slowly and take your time...anything that you do mess up, can be covered up with some tape or padding, armor..etc..so it's not a huge deal...but once you get done to nothing on the sanded areas..there's not much else you can do....reason # 234 that i dont try doing this anymore...lol..

and to be honest..i hate seeing people ask about switching out bodies.and it's not cuz they are doing it..but because it makes me think about whether or not i should be doing it ..or if there is something wrong with the bodies...take the recent boba figure and his body...everyone is changing it out..i tried too..didnt work out..too much work to do, etc...so mine is on the stock body...which i happen to like....so im not sure why everyone is doing that...lol..

 

[spiderrogue]

speaking of boba..this is on a boba body...

 

[Cc3680]

hmm... considering swapping my fett over...

Lerath666: Read through all the custom fett stuff first. I think most of them switched to a slightly different HT body. You may have trouble with the torso too. I don't know. Is the Fett body different than the clone? I know the tusken is a different body.

 

[spiderrogue]

yes..yes it is...it's more beefy...the clone ones are really slim..the only thing the same is probably the forearms..since BF has gauntlets, they gave him itty bitty forearms..lol...
i'll take a pic..hang on

and i think that pretty much all of the newer SW bodies/figures use the same as boba(with some minor differences)...

 

[Cc3680]

Hello Everyone,
If you've read the earlier entries then you know I came across some sticky points switching my clone to a hot toys body. There have been some good lessons and tricks learned too.

before I take a dremel to the hot toys body I thought I would try and improve the ankle area on the sideshow body first.
First I tightened all the screws in the clone body. That alone improved firmness of the joints.

I have not had trouble with clone elbows, shoulders or knees. Just the ankles.

Next I removed some foot pegs using the afore mentioned technique. Then I bought and placed round pellets of milliput on the sideshow foot posts. (this will go into the foot).

After the proper curing time I heated up the shoes in a water bath and popped the feet posts in.

The retention was very very good and the foot was still posable. Now the connection to the leg itself was loose. As per another post i applied double sided sticky tape to post and put that into the leg.

The result is a much sturdier ankle for the clone body.

 

[spiderrogue]

see....much better...
so does the foot move around the new ball that you have inside of it? or does it just move from the ankle? does that make sense?

 

[Cc3680]

see....much better...
so does the foot move around the new ball that you have inside of it? or does it just move from the ankle? does that make sense?

The foot moves just like a Hot Toys foot wood move on the ball joint. because it is a circle you can turn the ankle, tip the toes down, etc...

Now I have to tighten the thighs. They twist around and cause destabilization. That involves taking the body apart. Not sure if I want to do that. I might though because I imagine a lot of us would be interested in seeing what it looks like inside the body.

If people have other ideas please post or PM me. I may try and record the process to share with everyone.

This is definitely an easy modification that in my opinion has positive results.

 

[spiderrogue]

slap some tape around them...it causes enough friction to hold them...but you should be able to turn them still....just a thought(all of my solutions are taped based...fyi..lol...j/k)..seriously tho...ive had to use tape on a few things in the past and it does stop them from moving..but you can still move them if needed...and i really dont mean for you to use tape....

 

[mortifactor]

I absolutely butchered 2 TT slims with a dremel to make sandtrooper armour fit over the thighs, I used a rotary tool with a sanding head and wore goggles, then smoothed it down with sandpaper.

I do away with those thin ssc trooper bodies as they have horrible wide hips and always fell over. I can have a sandie on 1 foot, backpack and all, and he won't fall over on a tt slim. Also got bossk on a tt slim with tt narrow shoulders and then the ssc lower legs and lower arms, but thats a photo for another day

 

[Cc3680]

Hey mortifactor,
Thanks for sharing. I have yet to take the sander to my slim body but I think it will happen soon. I don't have any storm trooper leg armor so I didn't know if that would fit. Clone legs armor fits good. I gotta sand the hips. I'm glad you shared because I need confidence.

Has anyone else done something similar? Has anyone else switched legs on a tt body?

 

[mortifactor]

If you do sand it, which I'd recommend, be sure to wear goggles. The type of plastic is very hard and when it does give way, it spews loads of fragments. They constantly bounced off my goggles so I was glad I had them . Its easy to do though

 

[spiderrogue]

achkkk..dont toss them out..just send them to me..lol...see..everyone wins that way...